An implant as a term of dentistry means that an artificially-made tooth is implanted into an alveolar bone of a person. That is, a dental implant procedure indicates an operation that helps a recovery of a tooth function by implanting a tooth root into an alveolar bone in a toothless gum so as to replace a worn-out tooth root, wherein the tooth root is made of a metal material such as titanium that is not rejected by a human body, and then by fixing an artificial tooth thereto.
A common dental prosthesis or a false tooth damages its adjacent teeth and bones according to time. However, an implant is advantageous in that it does not damage its adjacent tooth tissue, has the same shape or function as a natural tooth, does not have a tooth decay, and can be semi-permanently used, so that the implant is widely implanted in recent days.
A dental implant procedure will now be briefly described. The dental implant procedure is performed in a manner that a fixture is implanted and osseointegrated to a surgical hole that is bored in an alveolar bone by using an exclusive-use drill, an abutment is combined with the fixture, and then a final dental prosthesis covers the abutment.
The implant is advantageous in that it recovers a single lost-tooth, increases a function of artificial teeth of a patient having only few teeth or a toothless patient, improves an aesthetic feature of a dental recovery by a dental prosthesis, disperses a heavy load applied to its adjacent alveolar bone tissue, and stabilizes a row of teeth.
In the dental implant procedure, a surgical hole is bored in a patient's alveolar bone by using the exclusive-use drill, and since the implant is implanted into the surgical hole, the boring process of the surgical hole is very important.
In order to bore the surgical hole, first, the gingival of a patient to have the implant is cut so as to expose an alveolar bone.
Then, a position in the exposed alveolar bone to which the implant is to be implanted is determined, and the predetermined position in the exposed alveolar bone is bored by using a boring instrument such as a drill, so that the surgical hole to which the implant is to be implanted is formed.
Afterward, the implant is implanted into the surgical hole and then the gingival is covered, so that the dental implant procedure is complete.
A process of implanting an implant, and manufacturing and loading a dental prosthesis to the implant is called ‘immediate loading’ that is advantageous in that a toothless state of a patent can be minimized. After a successful treatment with regard to an immediate loading is reported, in case that index cases are correctly selected, the immediate loading treatment is recognized as a safe procedural technique and then is generally considered as a priority treatment. In the past, a screw-retained restoration type dental prosthesis is preferred since it is easy to remove it when required. However, according to agreed opinions, it is necessary to minimize macro-motion in an implant for two months that are the least period for osseointegration so as to make a long-tem use of the implant possible, thus, a cement-retained restoration type dental prosthesis is preferred due to easiness in the prosthesis manufacture. In a case of the cement-retained restoration type dental prosthesis, it is required to form a dental prosthesis on an upper portion of an implant on the same day as a dental implant procedure. Thus, only when implants are implanted in parallel into correct positions, selection of an abutment may be easy, a dental implant procedure may be simplified, and a treatment term can be shortened, and by doing so, a possibility of occurrence of after-implant problems may be minimized. Thus, there is an increasing demand for a means that helps several implants to be implanted in parallel to each other.